A lovely honeyed floral perfume – elegance and simplicity
Beige is a perfume from Chanel’s high-end collection, Les Exclusifs de Chanel. Apparently, beige was the favorite color of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. This perfume evokes the natural voluptuousness of beige, which was a refuge for Gabrielle Chanel, so says their website. For mere mortals, it is a lovely honeyed floral fragrance that is both simple and long-lasting. The nose behind Beige is Jacques Polge who created many of the Chanel Les Exclusifs. This review is based on a full bottle that I bought recently.
Though beautiful in its elegance and simplicity, it is a simple medley of accords. We have three floral notes – frangipani, freesia and hawthorn – blended nicely using a delicate honey note. I can wax poetic about the beauty of this combination, but it is wholly unnecessary. Beige and its sisters, Comète and 1957, create a delicate and ethereal aura of floral notes, something quite unique to the florals from Chanel Les Exclusifs.
The performance of Beige is superlative. I can smell it on me even after twelve hours. The sillage is very good for a few hours, but it stays inoffensive. It is very safe for work, as it is versatile and pretty.
I bought a 40 ml bottle of this eau-de-parfum as one of the five bottles in a Les Exclusifs set that Chanel sells. If you go to a Chanel boutique, you can select any five fragrances from the Les Exlusifs collection. In a world saturated with avant-garde and niche perfumes, Les Exclusifs de Chanel remain the gold standards in perfumery.
